Mergers drive a powerful dusty quasar Massive galaxies in the early Universe host supermassive black holes at their centers. When material falls toward the black hole, it releases energy and is observed as a quasar. Astronomers found a population of powerful distant quasars that are obscured by dust, but it has been unclear how they are formed. Díaz-Santos et al. observed the dust-obscured quasar WISE J224607.56-052634.9 at submillimeter wavelengths, finding three small companion galaxies connected to the quasar by bridges of gas and dust. They inferred that galaxy mergers can provide both the raw material to power a quasar and large quantities of dust to obscure it. Science, this issue p. 1034 Galaxy mergers can provide the raw materials to drive powerful dust-observed quasars in the early Universe. Galaxy mergers and gas accretion from the cosmic web drove the growth of galaxies and their central black holes at early epochs. We report spectroscopic imaging of a multiple merger event in the most luminous known galaxy, WISE J224607.56−052634.9 (W2246−0526), a dust-obscured quasar at redshift 4.6, 1.3 billion years after the Big Bang. Far-infrared dust continuum observations show three galaxy companions around W2246−0526 with disturbed morphologies, connected by streams of dust likely produced by the dynamical interaction. The detection of tidal dusty bridges shows that W2246−0526 is accreting its neighbors, suggesting that merger activity may be a dominant mechanism through which the most luminous galaxies simultaneously obscure and feed their central supermassive black holes.

中文翻译：

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红移 4.6 处高亮度模糊类星体的多重合并组装

合并驱动强大的尘埃类星体 早期宇宙中的大质量星系在其中心拥有超大质量黑洞。当物质落向黑洞时，它会释放能量并被观察为类星体。天文学家发现了一群被尘埃遮蔽的强大遥远类星体，但尚不清楚它们是如何形成的。迪亚兹-桑托斯等人。以亚毫米波长观察了被尘埃遮挡的类星体 WISE J224607.56-052634.9，发现了三个通过气体和尘埃桥连接到类星体的小型伴星系。他们推断星系合并既可以提供为类星体提供动力的原材料，也可以提供大量尘埃来掩盖它。科学，这个问题 p。1034 次星系合并可以为在早期宇宙中驱动强大的尘埃观测类星体提供原材料。来自宇宙网的星系合并和气体吸积在早期推动了星系及其中心黑洞的生长。我们报告了已知最明亮星系 WISE J224607.56−052634.9 (W2246−0526) 中多次合并事件的光谱成像，这是一个在大爆炸后 13 亿年红移 4.6 处的尘埃模糊类星体。远红外尘埃连续谱观测显示 W2246-0526 周围的三个星系伴星具有扰动的形态，由可能由动力相互作用产生的尘埃流连接。潮汐尘埃桥的探测表明，W2246-0526 正在吸积它的邻居，这表明合并活动可能是一种主要机制，通过这种机制，最明亮的星系同时遮蔽和喂养它们中央的超大质量黑洞。